


Contagion

by kethni



Category: Veep (TV)
Genre: F/M, Pre-Relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-25
Updated: 2019-12-25
Packaged: 2021-02-26 01:33:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,741
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21955189
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kethni/pseuds/kethni
Summary: She put her head in her hands. ‘Why the fuck did we have this in a god damn lab in the first place? That’s some supervillain stuff! We’re supposed to be the good guys!’Kent raised his eyebrows. ‘We are?’She drew her brows together. ‘We’re America, Kent, of course we’re the good guys.’‘I suspect that might be a matter of perspective,’ he said carefully. ‘Particularly if one is making deadly and virulent diseases even more dangerous.’
Relationships: Kent Davison/Selina Meyer
Comments: 6
Kudos: 13





	Contagion

**Author's Note:**

> For CrazyMaryT

‘I’m too sober for this,’ Kent said, looking out of the window.

‘Yeah,’ Ben said.

Selina shivered. If she had any doubts about the seriousness of the situation that two-line interaction would have certainly disabused her of them.

‘When will we get to the airfield?’ she asked.

Kent checked his watch. ‘In this traffic, perhaps fifteen minutes.’

‘Chatter is rising on Twitter,’ Ben said. ‘Trending hashtags now include “weird illness,” “collapse,” and “Zombie Apocalypse.” Because some asshole always wants the zombie apocalypse.’

Selina shifted in her seat. ‘If people spent less time twittering and more time doing their jobs then maybe we wouldn’t have a freaking pandemic.’

‘Sure,’ Ben said. ‘I guess.’

Selina chewed her thumb. ‘Why is nobody calling? People should be doing things. Arranging things.’

‘They are,’ Kent promised. ‘They’re too busy to call.’

She threw back her hair. ‘Too busy to talk to the president?’

‘Yeah,’ Ben said. ‘Doctors and nurses are rude AF. They don’t even wanna talk to the patients. If you’re a relative, then forget about it.’

‘When we’re safely onboard Air Force One I’ll call for a status update,’ Kent said.

‘Good.’ She looked out of the window. ‘Did we hear anything from Catherine?’

Ben and Kent exchanged looks.

‘Not yet,’ Ben said.

‘What about Joyce?’ Kent asked quietly.

Ben waggled his cell. ‘On her way to her mom’s.’

‘Who the fuck is Joyce?’ Selina asked. ‘People shouldn’t be moving around. They’re gonna spread this stuff.’

‘My wife,’ Ben said. ‘And _we’re_ moving around.’

‘That’s different,’ Selina insisted. ‘If something happens to me then it presents an existential threat to the United States! I _have_ to survive for the good of the country if not the entire planet.’

‘Good Lord,’ Kent muttered.

Selina ignored this implied criticism. ‘I can’t believe Gary wasn’t in work. The one time I actually want a snack and he’s not here.’

‘It’s after midnight,’ Kent pointed out.

‘If we had lives, we wouldn’t have been there either,’ Ben said.

‘I have a life,’ Kent said. ‘I came in specifically due to the pandemic.’

Ben didn’t bother to reply. He just looked out of the window.

‘It’s gonna be okay though,’ Selina said. ‘Right? Boys? It’s gonna be okay?’

***

Ben got out of the car to deal with the airfield admin… stuff. Selina didn’t know the details and she didn’t care. She didn’t do details. That was someone else’s job.

‘I need a Kleenex,’ she said.

Kent tore his attention away from his cell. He dug into his inner pocket and produced a small packet.

‘That’s already been opened,’ she said.

Kent blinked. ‘This is all that I have.’

‘I don’t even know how you people live,’ she grumbled.

‘I would advise that you avoid using that or any similar expression,’ he said. ‘The fatality rate is currently forty-five percent of all infected.’

Selina made a croaking sound. ‘How… How can it be forty-five percent when the outbreak is like six hours old?’

Kent nods. ‘It will go up over the next few days.’

‘Jesus Christ!’ Selina threw up her hands. ‘That’s not a thing!’

Kent was plugging his cell into the charger in the door. ‘I’m not aware of any diseases with a one hundred percent fatality rate but there are some that are certainly approaching it.’

She put her head in her hands. ‘Why the fuck did we have this in a god damn lab in the first place? That’s some supervillain stuff! We’re supposed to be the good guys!’

Kent raised his eyebrows. ‘We are?’

She drew her brows together. ‘We’re _America_ , Kent, of course we’re the good guys.’

‘I suspect that might be a matter of perspective,’ he said carefully. ‘Particularly if one is making deadly and virulent diseases even more dangerous.’

Selina rolled her eyes. ‘Ya think?’

She stiffened as the door was pulled open. Ben was breathing heavily as he got into the car.

‘No flights. The aviation authority has shut down all flights to prevent the spread of the disease,’ Ben said.

‘Not of me!’ Selina protested. ‘I’m the president!’

Kent shook his head. ‘I think perhaps our best option may be to return to the White House.’

‘D.C. is full of sick people!’ Selina hissed.

Ben shrugged. ‘Everywhere is gonna be soon enough,’ he said. ‘We can’t fly and driving all the way to Colorado would take fucking… days.’

‘More importantly,’ Kent said, ‘we would be exposed to so many pathogens on the way that we would likely be at much higher risk than remaining in D.C.’

‘This is fucking nuts! I shouldn’t be driving around like a fucking refuge, I’m the damn president!’

Ben spread out his hands. ‘Then we have to go back to the White House.’

***

‘Do I want to know?’ Selina asked.

‘I don’t want to know,’ Ben said.

‘The state of emergency has been declared,’ Kent said. ‘It is not being greeted with enthusiasm.’

Ben scowled as he answered his cell, lowering his voice.

Selina leaned forward to speak to Kent. ‘Nobody is enthusiastic about being told not to leave their homes!’

‘And yet this is probably the best time in history for it,’ Kent said dryly. ‘The majority of the population, if provided with internet access and Uber Eats, would happily never leave their homes.’

Selina snorted. ‘So, all we gotta do to keep ‘em happy is send porn actors door to door with pizzas. Easy.’

Ben lunged forward and banged on the partition. ‘Pull over!’

‘What are you doing?’

‘What the hell?’

The car skewed over to one side.

‘You can’t leave!’ Selina protested.

‘It isn’t safe,’ Kent said.

Ben threw open the door. ‘You think it’s safe in there? Amy and Dan are down. We’ve already been exposed.’

‘Where are you going?’ Selina called after him.

‘To be with my family while I can,’ Ben retorted.

Kent pulled the door shut. The driver started the engine and drew out. Selina licked her lips.

‘You gonna run off and leave me too?’ she asked.

‘It’s not on my current agenda,’ he said.

***

There were soldiers on the streets along with the police. Soldiers, police, and bodies. Selina shuddered as the car glided to a halt inside a tent.

‘This is some zombie apocalypse level stuff, huh?’ she asked Kent nervously.

‘That would easier to deal with,’ he admitted. ‘Transmission via bite is a good deal slower and less pervasive than transmission by air.’

She chewed her lower lip as the air outside the car was vacuumed out and replaced with clean air. ‘Is the West Wing airtight?’

‘No.’

‘The residency?’

‘No.’

She looked at her hands. ‘Any word on Gary?’

Kent checked his cell. ‘I’ve heard nothing.’

‘No news is good news,’ Selina suggested.

‘Possibly,’ Kent allowed.

‘You’re humouring me.’

Kent rubbed his forehead. ‘I would have expected him to make his way here irrespective of what the police say. However, I may be underestimating his sense of self-preservation.’

‘It’s weird to imagine Gary in like… a house, with a bathroom, and… a life,’ Selina admitted.

Kent raised his eyebrows. ‘I wouldn’t assume that he has a life.’

‘He had a girlfriend for a hot minute,’ Selina said. ‘I had to have _lunch_ with her. Ugh!’

‘Dana,’ Kent said.

‘Right. What happened to her?’

Kent clasped his hands together. ‘She wanted him to quit your employ and join her in a business venture. I believe that he initially agreed but that when he changed his mind the relationship foundered.’

‘Oh,’ Selina said. She shook her head. ‘How the fuck do you know that?’

‘We work together,’ he said. ‘Not closely but we do. It’s normal for people in a work environment to share various parts of their lives.’

She tipped her head. ‘It is?’

‘Perhaps less so with the boss,’ he said quickly.

‘Huh.’

There was a hiss as the air change completed and the tent was opened up. Selina took a long breath and released it slowly.

‘How is it scarier to go back in there than to just ride around?’ she wondered.

‘In there it’s impossible to escape the gravity and reality of the situation,’ Kent said quietly. ‘And it is extremely grave.’

She rolled her eyes. ‘Thanks for the clarification.’

***

It was eerily quiet. There were _always_ people around the West Wing. Okay so Selina had never been here past, like one in the morning, but she knew it happened. She knew that her senior staffers pulled all-nighters if only because she was sometimes told that’s why they were going to be in late.

‘What’re you going to do?’ Selina asked.

Kent blinked. ‘I was going to my office to coordinate what I can.’

‘I guess I’ll go to the Oval Office,’ she said, swinging her arms. ‘How hard can the coffee machine be?’

Kent shrugged. ‘I’ll make you a coffee.’

‘Oh, thank Christ.’

***

She’d been in the West Wing hundreds of times, more maybe. As she walked through the deserted corridors now, she realised how few of these rooms she had ever entered. How few of the thousands of employees to whom she had ever spoken. Day to day she spoke to maybe thirty people regularly and most of those she had no idea if they were married or had kids.

Thousands of people worked in the West Wing. How many of them were asleep in their beds? How many were sat up sick with anxiety? How many were _sick_? How many were dying?

How many were dead?

Selina shivered as she followed Kent into the small kitchen. The West Wing was an old building; maintenance was almost non-existent, and improvements had been patchwork. She had never particularly thought about the heating. Even if the rest of the building had been freezing, unlikely given so many people crammed into such small rooms, she would have been kept warm. There was an army of people devoted to her comfort. Gary was merely the tip of the spear.

‘I bet you normally have people to do this for you, huh?’ she asked, as Kent got pods out for the coffee machine.

‘During regular work hours,’ he agreed. ‘They tend to go home at the end of the workday.’

‘Slackers,’ Selina said lightly. 

His smile was just a brief pull of his lips and a quick glance. But it was more natural and comfortable than the smile he usually gave when she made a funny comment.

‘Please tell me you don’t all share this one tiny space,’ she said.

‘There are several break areas,’ Kent said. ‘This is merely the one with which I am most familiar.’ He opened the refrigerator. ‘There’s still no word from Gary.’

Selina nodded. ‘Yeah. But, he’s… Well he’s not _young_ but I guess he’s healthy… kinda. Hopefully he’ll be… You know.’

‘Indeed.’ Kent turned to her holding a dish in his hands. ‘So, it would behove us to dispose of this food for him. One way or another.’

‘Is it a casserole?’ she asked, lifting up the lid. ‘Trust Gary to bring a fucking casserole into work.’

‘It appears to be cheese and bacon grits,’ Kent said. ‘I’ll warm it up if you’re in agreement.’

Selina sniffed suspiciously. ‘That sounds disgusting and smells amazing, so fire up the burners or whatever.’

‘I hope that Gary is a proficient cook.’

She snorted. ‘Twenty says that he’s as mediocre at cooking as he is at every fucking thing.’

Kent’s lips twitched slightly.

‘What?’ Selina asked.

‘I said nothing.’

‘Yeah. You said nothing real loud.’ She pushed herself up onto the countertop. ‘I can’t cook either.’

‘I can,’ Kent said. ‘It is, after all, essentially chemistry, and chemistry obeys certain rules. I suppose that for someone in your position cooking is a luxury that you don’t have the time to indulge in.’

Selina swung her feet. ‘Three minutes on the can are my alone time.’

He put the casserole dish in the microwave. ‘We appear to have some time now.’

She gave a bitter laugh. ‘Yeah, hanging out with you while the world ends is _totally_ a great time for me to do all the wellness shit.’

Kent turned on the coffee machine. ‘It might be your last opportunity for a while.’

She gripped the edge of the counter. ‘Or ever?’

He chewed his lip and leaned back against the counter. ‘Potentially any moment may be our last. Such is the nature of life.’ He made the coffee and handed it to Selina.

‘We’re not talking about a heart attack or a stroke,’ she said. ‘I have doctors, nutritionists, and trainers. I’m doing everything I can to look after myself –’

‘Well, the stress of being president –’

Selina waved her hand. ‘I’m allowed not to expect to drop down dead at any second. But now it seems like every other fucker is catching this disease and I don’t know what I’m supposed to do to avoid it.’

He shook his head. ‘There’s nothing we can do,’ he said quietly.

‘I can’t accept that!’

The microwave dinged but Kent ignored it.

‘There are things that we can’t change, and we can’t control,’ he said, focussed entirely on Selina.

She was used to him being serious. Kent was _always_ serious pretty much. But this was something else. This was him trying to impart something he thought was important on a different level and she didn’t like it one fucking bit.

‘I refuse to accept that,’ she said, tipping up her chin.

He shrugged and turned to the microwave. ‘Then I fear that you are doomed to frustration.’

‘How’s that any different from now?’

***

They sat on the seal, between the two couches, and ate their purloined cheese and grits. Selina kicked off her shoes and Kent took off his tie and unbuttoned his collar. After about five minutes, Selina got up, crossed over to her bar, and poured two glasses of wine.

‘It’s not great,’ she said, handing a glass to Kent, ‘but neither is the food.’

‘Ben has a very nice whiskey in his office,’ Kent said. ‘I can fetch it afterwards.’

Selina sat down, crossed her feet at the ankles, and picked at her food. ‘Are you trying to get me drunk, Kent?’

He toasted her with his glass of wine. ‘I could ask you the same.’

‘Maybe a little,’ she said. ‘I might like to see you casual.’

He toed off his shoes. ‘There you are.’

She sniggered. ‘The difference with you is whether or not you’re wearing shoes?’

‘I already took off my tie.’

Selina finished off her food. ‘No word from Catherine?’

He shook his head. ‘I’m afraid not.’

‘Jesus. What does it say that she’s the only person I’m worrying about?’

Kent licked his lips. ‘She’s your daughter,’ he said quietly. ‘Doubtless if I had been fortunate enough to have a child then I would be terrified for them.’

‘Thank you.’ Selina ran her fingers through her hair. ‘I wasn’t sure if you had a family or what.’

He raised his eyebrows. ‘No. I would have very much like to have had a family, but it was not to be.’

She shifted position. ‘Oh. In retrospect I would have very much liked not to have had a family.’

Kent chuckled. ‘I’m sure that you don’t mean that.’

‘Nah,’ she said. ‘It’s not retrospective. I always thought that.’

He smiled slightly and put his dish aside. ‘I believe that Ben has always felt the same.’

Selina snorted. ‘Fucker needs to stop marrying his pregnant mistresses.’

‘Pattern recognition isn’t his strongest talent,’ Kent admitted.

She leaned back against the couch. ‘Do you have someone you’re worrying about? Fuck, is that too personal?’

‘We’re probably going to die here together,’ he said. ‘What could be more personal?’

‘Oh Jesus. Oh fuck.’ Selina covered her face.

She heard him move across next to her. After a moment he put his arm around her.

‘I’m sorry,’ he said. ‘I shouldn’t have said that.’

‘Gimmie another Kleenex, you dick,’ she said. She took the proffered tissue and dabbed her eyes. Then she looked up at the ceiling. ‘You wanna go up to the residence?’

‘Uh…?’

Selina looked at him. ‘If we’re gonna die here, then I’m gonna need more comfort than your arm around my shoulder.’

Kent was quiet for a moment and then nodded. ‘I can do that.’ 

They stood up.

‘Maybe we’ll pick up Ben’s whiskey on the way,’ he said.

‘Asshole,’ she said, and took his hand.

The End


End file.
